On a Sunday afternoon in February, the sun was shining and life
was good so I thought I'd go check out
the Placencia Sidewalk Arts and Music Festival. That's a local event around here and we've all
appreciated it for years now. We see
some of the most talented artisans and musicians come from all over Belize just
to be here!
You can't imagine all the different people you'll meet as you walk down
our little sidewalk by the beach. Everyone is here. The vendor booths line both sides of the walk and the place is packed with people! This
is a good sign. Steve, one of my friends
here in the village, felt the whole festival was set up better than ever.
Bob the Poet (one of the village characters) was selling his
poetic cards and carvings of pumice stones. Ben the Baker was sending some incredible
aromas through the air of cakes, pies, cookies and all kinds of deserts. He sold out by the way. Not even samples were left over. Barbara, who
lives here as well, was selling her wonderful paintings on coconut husks! She does the normal stuff too. Rob, who was a tourist, moved here. Rob does some fantastic tattoo work.
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| Bob the Poet |
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| Ben the Baker |
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| William and Jenica |
The newcomers to Placencia were having a ball as well. Roy and Sheryl from Wasilla, Alaska (where?)
were enjoying the festival and the nice tropical weather. They've gone to other festivals in their
travels but really enjoyed the diversity at our festival: arts, crafts, music, food, and tons of very,
very, different people for all walks of life. They'll be back.
I was getting thirsty so I aimed for the rum tent and found some
happy volunteers rushing around to keep up with the crowd. All four kept pretty busy most of the time. Among them were Ally and Pamela. They stated this was the best year yet for the
festival; more vendors, more visitors, more food, and better organized. Cool.
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| A very happy volunteer |
At the very north edge of the Festival was Cyril who goes by the nickname of Ras Stine. He has some wonderful bead and shell work as well as carvings. He is here all year long, selling his goods. He can be reached at inegryne@yahoo.com if you are interested in seeing what more he has.
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| Ras Stine |
It's wonderful to see the festival progress as it has. The layout of the festival was much more
condensed and that made it so much easier to get around. The music was left to one area on the beach
which left the sidewalk exclusively for our artists to showcase their work, in
peace and quiet. Everyone I spoke with
was happy with the diversity of the arts and felt the quality of work was quite
high.
The weather is really good this time of the year, warm, calm,
and sunny. It's also just past the rush
of vacation travelers around Christmas and the New Year, so it's calm and easy
to get around. This is an event worth
planning your vacation to Placencia Village, Belize around.
